Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Self Financing Engineering College Management Association (KSFECMA) and the state government have entered into an agreement with the same fee as last year here on Friday. KSFECMA president Jory Mathai told Deccan Chronicle that there was no change in the clauses of the agreement from last year. However, education minister C Raveendranath has requested the managements to cut down the liquidated damages charged from students who discontinued their studies midway, Mr Mathai said.
At present, the colleges charge fee for four years as liquidated damages. This was unfair the minister felt. He wanted the managements to make some concessions. The managements have assured the minister to consider this demand positively and discuss it at their meeting. The demand was not for doing away with liquidated damages, but for concession. The decision on the same would be made clear after the meeting of the managements, Mr Mathai said.
Last year it was unified fee for all government quota seats in 57 engineering colleges in the state. Moreover, the fee was reduced from Rs 75,000 to Rs 50,000 for all the seats in these 57 colleges. However, the remaining 41 colleges had a two-tier fee structure. In these colleges, the fee would be Rs 50,000 for lower income group candidates and Rs 50,000 and a special fee of Rs 25,000 for other students,. As per the agreement 50 per cent seats will be government quota, 35 per cent seats management quota and 15 per cent NRI quota. The fee for NRI quota was fixed at Rs 95,000.
